KosherEye Featured Product

Quinoa ("Keen-Wa"), was first brought to the United States from Chile over 25 years ago. It has been cultivated in the Andes Mountains for thousands of years.Kosher for Passover Status: Most rabbis have determined that quinoa is a non-grain, a member of the "goose foot" family, which includes sugar beets and beet root. Therefore, quinoa, when not contaminated by chometz in the growing process or in handling , is now considered kosher for Passover. When purchasing quinoa, check for special Passover certification on label or verify brand kashrut with the kosher certifying agency.

Basic Quinoa Recipe: In a pot, add 1 part quinoa with 2 parts boiling water; turn off flame, and cover tightly. The quinoa will continue to cook itself, is ready in about ten minutes. The grains will look "squiggly" when ready. Use in lieu of rice. Quinoa is a has more calcium, iron, and protein than wheat, and is gluten free.

From the company: “We believe that some of the best moments in life are spent around the table with the ones you love. In these crazy, dizzy, over-scheduled days, we want to bring people back together. Our goal at Birch Benders is to make the world a more beautiful and delicious place, one pancake at a time.”

KosherEye thinks that Birch Benders is simply a luscious choice, especially for the hurried family. A healthy breakfast, snack, or dessert can be whipped up in a flash; even the kids can help. The recipe is easy and quick: add water to the pancake mix, stir, pour into the pre-heated fry pan, and the pancakes are ready. We tried them plain, and alternatively topped them with berries, pecans and a bit of whipped cream. We enjoyed every bite.

Birch Benders products are available at supermarkets or can be ordered online.

Two of our favorite Birch Benders varieties are Classic and Six Grain Cinnamon. Both offer taste, quality and convenience. Scoop the desired amount of mix into a bowl, add water, combine with a fork, and put into the fry pan or waffle maker. Guests will never know that these are not from scratch. Delicious! By the way, the child tasters loved the chocolate chip variety!

Want to make your kitchen life a bit easier at busy times? (Ok, yes we do know that busy times are actually most times in the average households!)

These sauce mixes are so convenient for those meals that you want to prepare a "semi-homemade" recipe. Combine the sauce packet with the suggested ingredients on the label, and your dish is done. . .

Varieties include Pasta Alfredo sauce, Spicy Taco, Garlic seasoning mix for vegetables, Fajita, Sesame Ginger and many more. And yes, they are all organic and KSA kosher certified. The mixes are widely available in supermarkets such as Whole Foods. Learn more about the company and enjoy some recipes at Frontiercoop.com. We applaud Simply Organics for donating 1% of Sales for the restoration of environmental communities and natural habits worldwide.

Irene’s Bakery and Gourmet KitchenTastes like Homemade!

Yes these taste like they were homemade! That is about the best compliment a food – especially a baked good can be given. The pastries from Irene's tastes just like we made them ourselves, with a lot less work.

Irene's Bakery used to be a "Mom and Pop" shop - serving Jewish style foods to local deli and convenience stores in Pennsylvania. In 2002, Irene's Bakery was bought by a young couple, Irina and Daniel Zelikovich, who expanded the business and re-invented the company. Its reach is now nationwide. Irene's is an all-natural food manufacturer, serving food retailers like Whole Foods Market, Wegmans, King's, Shop Rite's and local supermarkets such as Acme and Giant. All of Irene's baked goods are kosher certified Star K (parve), or Star D (dairy).

The pastries are based on traditional heirloom Jewish bakery recipes, but are made with organic unbleached flours, and sweetened with organic evaporated cane Juice. There are no food additives, colors, hydrogenated oils, or food preservatives in Irene's products. In addition to baked goods, the company sells blintzes, knishes, vegetable puffs and more, but we will cover those another time.

Some of our favorites from Irene's Bakery:Biscotti We found these at our local Whole Foods Market20 calories each – Most are fat and sodium free. What a calorie bargain and you would never know it by tasting. These are crunchy, just sweet enough and perfect with morning coffee. They are available in several delicious flavors including Pistachio Vanilla, Raisin Almond, Cranberry, Chocolate Almond, Coffee Amaretto. Star K ParveSo which were our favorites? We especially enjoyed the Pistachio Vanilla and Cranberry, but our other tasters had different favorites. All were enjoyed.

Apricot and Raspberry tarts – resembles our favorite linzer cookies. They are rich, buttery cookies topped with sweet apricot or raspberry jam. Superb in taste and crumb. Irene's also makes apricot and raspberry "puffs" that are very similar to the tarts, but with a different crust. Yumm. Star D Dairy

Rugelach – So luscious, we could hardly stop ourselves from eating the entire package. These taste like the ones from our kitchen, but Irene's bakes more flavors than we do -- and buying Irene's rugelach certainly offers a sweet convenience for the busy cook. Walnut Raisin, Raspberry, Chocolate and Cinnamon. Our favorite? Couldn't choose one- we liked them all. Star D Dairy

Nomoo Cookies

Take the Dairy Out; Leave the Delicious In

We at KosherEye often make our own cookies – particularly when we need parve (dairy free) cookies. Yes, there are some excellent dairy cookies available at the supermarket, but parve is another story. And then came Nomoo-dairy free.

This is a new brand, headquartered in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and OU certified. When the cookies arrived at our door, we did not know what to expect, and were wowed by the beautiful box and wrap. We checked the ingredients and were pleasantly surprised with the lack of additives – no preservatives, chemicals, transfats or artificial flavors or colors. Best of all Nomoo seems to use many of the same ingredients that we do – including King Arthur Flour and Earth Balance margarine. Impressive! And, yes we found them quite delicious. Our favorites: Oat-Rageous, Choco-Lift and of course, The Big Chipper. We ate most of them, and then, were able to freeze the rest. Works perfectly!

This is a sweet gift for your Yom Tov host or just to treat yourself. At the Nomoo website you will find a variety cookie combinations at $19.95 a dozen, plus shipping. If you really want to have some cookie fun, you can join the monthly, quarterly or yearly Nomoo cookie club.Visit: Nomoocookies.com